Will the House of Lords Cause a No-Deal Brexit?

Could it be that the ploys and ruses of the Remainers in the House of Lords could end up being the very cause of something they say they wish to avoid – namely a no-deal Brexit?

Now wouldn't it be a hoot, if all the effort certain members of the House of Lords put in to laying legal bear traps in their amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill just led to a no-deal exit from the EU – to a proper Full Withdrawal of the UK from the EU – the full FWUKEU.

"The House of Lords is increasing the risk of no deal. I am a passionate Brexiteer but I have always argued that we should secure the best deal that we can with our European friends and partners. I think the peers are making that harder and are making no deal more likely." he said.

Now that would be a salutary lesson on the laws of unintended consequence. Wouldn't it?

The Five Star Movement and Lega parties may now have overcome their differences but they would together move forward with plans that require money that Italy does not have at the moment. Unless that is, they completely ignore the eurozone fiscal pact as, in actual fact, Italy needs to reduce spending to comply with it.

According to FXStreet:

"A government consisting of Five Star and Lega would well adopt a confrontational attitude towards Brussels, as both parties operate according to the motto ‘Italy first’. Fierce conflicts with Brussels may arise, especially regarding the regulations on the public budget and compliance with the Fiscal Pact."

I see a nice little headache for the EU commission and the European Central Bank developing here. Or maybe the first small tear with a giant rip developing in due course.

Now to space, again.

The UK's space industry is pushing for the creation of a National Space Programme in its latest report 'Prosperity from Space' to focus on four specific areas: Earth Information Services, Connectivity Services, in-space robotics and low cost access to space.

All sounds good as the document talks about building on an already very successful UK space business, investing in people, encouraging the study of STEM subjects as well as its great growth potential and routes to increasing exports etc.

There are also some impressive figures involved, space sector productivity is nearly three times the national average, year on year growth has been five times greater than the wider economy since 1999, the space sector has tripled in value since the turn of the millennium and 36.4% of turnover is generated by exports.

But for me it falls flat when it also talks about deepening involvement in the European Space Agency and the European Organisation for Meteorological Satellites. But no mention of NASA for example. The report appears to me to be totally EU-centric and therefore flawed.

It seems that even our forward thinking space programme leaders can't think outside of that little EU box! Or is this just another way of quietly keeping the UK from getting too far away from the EU apron strings.

And isn't it strange timing that according to Politico, a door is opening to make it easier for the UK to stay tied to an EU army.

Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands have put forward the idea that the EU's military pact should be open to non-member states. So the UK as a third country could take a role in EU military initiatives as well as the EU rapid reaction force.

The first question I have is, don't those three countries trust Nato or their other remaining EU member states to help look after them? After all, they are neatly sandwiched between Germany and France aren't they.

And the second question is, how can we be trusted with that responsibility if we can't be trusted with Galileo data?

And Leave.EU's chief exec, Liz Bilney, has been referred to the police for what the Electoral Commission calls 'serious offences'.

Arron Banks has responded in his normal forthright manner and told the commission he will see them in court.

Mr Banks said that the Electoral Commission has been politically motivated in this as many of its members are openly anti-Brexit and that their investigation was all about trying to find the smoking guns of Cambridge Analytica and dark Russian money stamped all over Leave.EU. But, on finding nothing of the sort, decided to push forward with fines against what Banks claims is a technical accounting matter.

Talking on the BBC2 Daily Politics show today he said that Leave.EU had submitted a 20 page report from an independent accountant in response to the initial claims but, he says, it must have been ignored as they just issued the original draft report anyway, a mere three days later.

"Effectively what they have done is, they started off their investigation with a remit of investigating Cambridge Analytica and dark Russian money – they have found no evidence of any of those things and they have fined us on a technical accounting issue which is heavily in dispute." Said Arron Banks.

Anyway, before the Remoaniacs start talking about the need for another Referendum over this, I'd just like to remind them that the Lib dems, Britain Stronger in Europe (now rebranded as Open Britain) and European Movement UK were also fined for breaches of EU referendum rules last year, as was UKIP.

And the remain camp did have a £9 million advantage over leave in the form of a government leaflet sent to every house – and Leave still won!

So we don't need another referendum, we just need our politicians and civil servants to carry out the will of the people in full – the Full Withdrawal of the UK from the EU – better known as FWUKEU!

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